NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - OHIO STATE VS LSU

March 20, 2022

Braxtin Miller

Tanaya Beacham

Kevin McGuff

Ohio State Buckeyes

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Baton Rouge for the Baton Rouge regional, the NCAA women's basketball tournament and the pregame press conference with Ohio State, winners yesterday over Missouri State. They will face LSU at 7:00 Monday night here at the Maravich Assembly Center. Pleased to be joined by senior guard Braxtin Miller to my left, who had 1.3 rebounds in the win over Missouri State. Far left is graduate forward Tanaya Beacham, who had 8 points and 5 rebounds in the win.

Q. Braxtin, this is for you. Obviously, I guess you saw LSU play yesterday. What's your impression of them, especially their guards, which seems to be their strength?

BRAXTIN MILLER: Yeah, I think they're a really great team. I think it's definitely going to be a struggle. They crash the boards really hard. Their guards are really skilled and fast. So just trying to play D, box out, get a lot of rebounds, I think is going to be really crucial for us.

Q. Question for each. I'll start with Tanaya. You are part of the team that played in the tournament with Toledo before you transferred. You didn't play in that game based on the box score I read. But just to get back the plays you did and the ability to win that game and enjoy the moment even though you are looking forward to tomorrow.

TANAYA BEACHAM: I'm really excited about the whole experience. I feel like it's a once in a lifetime experience for me, especially now that I'm a senior. All gas, no brakes. I don't want it to end.

Q. Coach Mulkey was just here. Of course she said she faced you when she was at Baylor. What's changed about the Braxtin Miller she faced at Oklahoma State compared to what you're doing now as a senior?

BRAXTIN MILLER: I think I'm kind of a different player. Obviously now I'm in the four position. She's definitely never seen me there. Just a little more mature, making hustle plays and stuff like that. So that's pretty much it.

Q. To both players, how do you view the challenge of just look at this like a road game in conference, going to somebody else's house when you're going to have all the fans and everything. Is it an us against the world mentality, or how do you view that challenge?

BRAXTIN MILLER: I think it's definitely difficult. They bring an amazing crowd. You can't really argue that. So it's definitely difficult, home court advantage. But I think that we have a really strong base, and we support each other so much. I think that we're excited to take on that challenge.

TANAYA BEACHAM: Yeah, I think the crowd is most definitely their sixth man behind them. So we most definitely have to come in there with not trying to get every call. We have to play smart and play our game and focus on us going into the game.

Q. Stay with Tanaya. If you could, just talk about your game. For most of us, this will be the first time to get to see you play. It looks like on paper you guys can do a little bit of everything, but you defend well and shoot the three pretty consistently. As a person on the team, how would you describe your team?

TANAYA BEACHAM: I feel like our team is very confident. I feel like we are a threat. Nobody should take us lightly no matter what you guys got on your roster. I feel like we're going to play sound, and we're going to be focused for this game for sure.

BRAXTIN MILLER: Yeah, I think that we have great chemistry, so we play really well together. We like playing with each other. We're going to play really hard, and I think that's one thing that we've gotten better at and just been mentally tough with throughout the season and improved on.

We might not always be the best team or the most skilled or whatever, but we are definitely going to play the hardest. So I think that's big for us.

Q. Braxtin, staying with you, the pressure at the end of the half on Missouri State, you guys pressed most of the first half. But as Katie mentioned in the broadcast, you hit a couple of shots, kind of got some momentum, closed it to five or six. What clicked then allowing that press to be more effective down the stretch in the first half?

BRAXTIN MILLER: I think we put a big emphasis trying to get stops in our press. Even if not stops, just slowing teams down, giving a little bit less of a shot clock. So I think it was kind of like we got one steal and a few shots, and we saw what the press was doing, and it was just like blood to a shark.

Like as soon as we saw that we could get some steals, we just kind of pounced and went crazy. So I think that was obviously huge and something we saw and just really went after.

Q. Braxtin, if you could describe Taylor's game for me at all.

BRAXTIN MILLER: Taylor, you guys have seen her play. Taylor's a super skilled player. She shoots the three like no other. She can even get it off the bounce and get a floater and things like that. She's a threat for sure. I'm super proud of everything she's brought to the team this year. She's really impressive, and I love that for her.

Q. A quick followup to the crowd question. Were you able to stay and watch the second game here?

BRAXTIN MILLER: Yes.

Q. What were your impressions of the environment in that game?

TANAYA BEACHAM: Their crowd definitely gave them a lot of support, especially when they got down. Their crowd most definitely brung them back into the game. Just to have the support that they had around them, they should have never had no doubt in their mind.

So we've got to most definitely tune out the crowd when we play. I feel like the crowd is going to be really hostile out there when we get out there. We can't let the crowd -- get too caught up in the crowd. We've got to tune it out.

BRAXTIN MILLER: I think it was really impressive. I love to see a crowd that big supporting women's basketball and things like that. I would hate to come to an empty stadium. So I think it was really impressive. It's a crazy environment. I think it's going to be definitely challenging, and they're a great crowd. So I'm excited.

Q. For both of you, Coach Mulkey talked earlier about how you're a 6 seed, what you all did in your conference this season, you should have been a higher seed. Kind of what does that say about this team?

BRAXTIN MILLER: I think we just have a lot of heart. I feel like people have doubted us a lot of times, and we just kind of take it with a grain of salt and for what it is. We don't let that get to us. We know ourselves and know our teammates, and we want to stick together and prove everyone wrong. I think that's been even more of a driving force for us.

It's not really something that's a bad thing for us if anything. It just fuels our fire more.

TANAYA BEACHAM: For sure our togetherness and our confidence in each other most definitely push us to go against anybody.

Q. Do you all normally practice with crowd noise like you did today?

BRAXTIN MILLER: No.

TANAYA BEACHAM: No.

Q. Just as Jacy's teammate, what is she like as a person? I know it's kind of open-ended, but if you could just highlight a few things. And in any way, it seemed like she had a really interesting response to that first quarter, obviously, was rough yesterday, and she caused a lot of havoc all over the floor in the second quarter and kind of seemed to lead the way. I don't know if you agree. Could you give me an idea of how her personality fits what she did yesterday?

TANAYA BEACHAM: She's always motivating us. She's always telling us to bring it together so we can calm our nerves and get ourselves together. I feel like she helps us a lot of trying to keep us composed or tries to make sure that she's composed so we don't get out of control or anything.

Pushing the ball, the ball goes through her. So if her tempo is higher or she's calm, I feel like it passes down to the whole team when we're out there.

BRAXTIN MILLER: Jacy is probably one of the hardest workers I ever met in my life. She is determined. So when I see her do things on the court and on the floor, I feel like it's exactly how that's supposed to go. I mean, everything she does on the court, I've seen her do a thousand times in practice and in workouts and things like that.

So, yeah, Jacy's super determined. She keeps her cool, and she definitely helps us lead the way in times that we're struggling, especially like yesterday. I'm so proud of her. She's an even greater person. As a friend, she's so fun and funny. I love Jacy.

KEVIN MCGUFF: Kevin McGuff.

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back. Happy to be joined by Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff. Once again, we'll address questions here in person from the media.

Q. Coach, just some general comments on what you saw last night, LSU, how they came through and beat Jackson State to move on to play you.

KEVIN MCGUFF: One, it was a great environment, which I figured it would be. The LSU fans really showed up to create just a great opportunity for both teams to play in front of a great crowd. So I thought that was very impressive. I know it will be similar tomorrow night.

LSU did what they always do and what Kim's teams always do. They played incredibly hard. They were physical. They defended at a high level. They were really, really aggressive on the boards. Then they had a combination of driving the ball and making open shots from their perimeter players who were very, very talented.

Q. I saw you scouting the game last night in person and with your team. Crowd noise today at practice, the girls said that was something a little new.

KEVIN MCGUFF: Yeah, we figured -- we were thinking about, like I said, being there yesterday, and the crowd really rallied behind the team late in the fourth quarter when they needed it. It got very loud. We played in some loud environments this year, but it's been a little while. So we just wanted to get the kids a little more used to it.

Q. Obviously, your win was important yesterday, but then you got a chance to watch your daughter's team play at Belmont.

KEVIN MCGUFF: Yes.

Q. Last time your family was here. What's it like for you for them?

KEVIN MCGUFF: Yesterday was a great day for our family. For those of you who don't know, my daughter is a freshman. She plays at Belmont. She had a huge upset win over Oregon. Our game was nerve-racking, down to the last minute, and I flip that on, and it goes to double overtime. My nerves are shot. I've got to regroup today and get ready for tomorrow.

Really just an exciting time for our family. My wife and three youngest kids were in Knoxville, and they made their way over here. Now they're here. It's been a good couple days for the family. We'll see if we've got any more magic left tomorrow.

Q. Have you coached against Coach Mulkey before when she was at Baylor? Just your thoughts on that.

KEVIN MCGUFF: I coached one time -- where were we, the Gulf Coast Classic? Yeah, at Ft. Myers in a tournament, we lost to Baylor the finals in that tournament, probably four or five years ago. Her teams, like I said, they look similar. They're huge. They're physical and aggressive. They play really hard.

Kim gets as much out of her teams as any coach in the country. I think this year's no different. She's done an amazing job with this group. I think they've had an outstanding year to this point, and she'll just continue to do amazing things with this program.

Q. Kim talked about your 2-2-1 press and the way you all use it at any point in time and committed to it. What do you like about it? What do you like how it affects other teams?

KEVIN MCGUFF: Well, it speeds the game up and we like to play fast. The other part is we're not really big and deep around the basket, and it kind of put a little more emphasis on ball handling and perimeter play, and then allowing them to just walk it up and pound it inside all night. So those would probably be the two biggest things it does for us.

Q. I guess two things. One is you said hopefully a little more magic tomorrow. But you don't really need magic to win tomorrow, right?

KEVIN MCGUFF: We might.

Q. That was a very respectful thing to say to LSU obviously. You obviously think highly of them. It's interesting because Kim seems to take issue with the idea that struggling against a 14 seed like they did last night is any kind of sign of vulnerability because she just feels like both teams, and especially Jackson State, played so well. What would be your feelings as a coach on that?

KEVIN MCGUFF: I agree with her. Number one, Jackson State played incredibly well, and they're very talented. It wasn't like they just played above their head. If you looked at their schedule, they played a bunch of SEC teams very close. But they're talented. They are very, very talented. I can't imagine there's a more talented 14 seed than Jackson State.

So I think Kim's right on. That wasn't some flukey thing. They're very good. They played really well, played really hard. I think it was actually great for LSU because they got tested and they really had to execute down the stretch with win or go home. I think that was good for them, to be honest with you.

Q. It appears on paper you have a deep bench. You like to play a lot of girls a lot of minutes. What advantage is that for you, especially given that you have some real proven players in Jacy and Taylor as well?

KEVIN MCGUFF: Yeah, I'm hoping we can use our bench a little bit tomorrow, especially if we can get the press going and get the game, the tempo up. Maybe the depth will help us. But LSU, they're deep enough too, especially with their post players. They keep rotating the post players, and that can really wear on you as an opponent, just the way they rotate their post players and keep them fresh.

Q. I know you probably heard me ask your players about Jacy. It just seemed like she really stood out, especially in the last three quarters of that game. I was wondering similarly, if you could comment on what kind of player she's been this year, especially for people who can get a better look at her in the second round.

KEVIN MCGUFF: Number one, she's an incredible kid. Comes from a great family. Her father is a former Division III basketball coach. She's been well schooled in the game of basketball since birth, and it shows.

Just an amazing worker. There can't be anyone in the country working as hard as she is. You've got to chase her out of the gym on a daily basis.

Then I think the probably really interesting thing about her this year is that before the season started, our starting point guard tore her ACL, Madison Greene. So then we had to shift Jacy to the point guard position, which I was a little nervous about because we count on her so much for scoring and so forth. She made the adjustment, and she's still been able to run the team, make sure we execute at a high level, make other people around her better, and score.

So that just really kind of speaks to her character, to be able to make that adjustment and not miss a beat, it's not easy. It's a really tough thing to do, but she's obviously handled it incredibly well. That probably kind of, as much as anything, sums up who she is as a player.

Q. She obviously gets a lot of attention for scoring. Anyone can look at the stats and see that. Could you comment on her as a defensive player and the kind of defense you play?

KEVIN MCGUFF: Yeah, the thing is, if you really watch her, I think people don't realize she's very, very quick. She's got great speed and quickness, and she's got great anticipation on the defensive end. Normally one or two games, one or two times a game, she's running through a pass, a pick six down the other end for a layup. She's also really, really good in our press because of her speed and agility and just ability to anticipate.